A Sandwich a Day: Suadero Torta from El Tenampa

In this great city of ours, one could eat a different sandwich every day of the year—so that's what we'll do. Here's A Sandwich a Day, our daily look at sandwiches around New York. Got a sandwich we should check out? Let us know.—The Mgmt.

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

Robyn has long been an advocate for El Tenampa, a Mexican grocery with a taqueria in the back, and I have to share her enthusiasm for a place that gets tortas and cemitas so right.

While the cemitas come with an addition of stringy Oaxacan cheese, the tortas ($6.50) showcase better bread: a roll that's substantially buttery with a gridled crust to balance the soft fillings. The main ingredient, in this case, is suadero, tender veal flank with as much meatiness as its grownup beefy relatives also on the menu. Though the suadero can't compare to the excellent stuff found at Los Portales, this is a superior sandwich, with substantial lobes of ripe avocado, crema, and shredded lettuce—everything the torta needs and nothing it doesn't. And it's large even by torta standards, as generous as the free guacamole at the salsa bar.

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About the Author

As a native of Queens, New York, Max developed an early hunger for dosas, dumplings, and Korean barbecue. Now he explores the city's evolving international food world by day and night. When not slurping noodles over a rickety table, he's in the kitchen tinkering with his ice cream maker on a never-ending quest to develop the best ice cream-making techniques.

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